Hardee's Apollo 13 Pog Collector Case - Pogs 1 - 10

For the last three Saturday's we've looked at the cool pog case offered by Hardee's as a tie-in to Ron Howard's movie Apollo 13 back in 1995. The case came in three sections with each section having two nicely decorated commemorative pogs, but the entire set consists of twenty pogs, a game card, and two metal 'slammers'. The pogs are designed such that, beginning with #1, tells the story of the Apollo 13 mission from lift-off to splash-down. We'll present the game card, slammers, and first ten pogs today. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina.

Slammers

The front (obverse) of each slammer has the same design while the revers is different. They're almost 1 5/8" (4.12cm) diameter

The first 10 pogs. The obverse is different on all and the reverse is nearly the same on all except for the pog number. They are also 1 5/8" in diameter

Hardee's Apollo 13 Pog Collector Case - Stage 3

Here's the last stage of Hardee's tie-in to Ron Howard's Apollo 13 movie from 1995. Stage 1 was posted on July 18 and  Stage 2 on July 25. As with the other sets, this is a self-contained pog case when used by itself, or when joined with the other two stages becomes the Saturn 5 booster rocket topped with the Command Module. When assembled it measures 14 1/2" (36.83cm) high x 2 1/2" (6.25cm) W at the fins. Next week we'll start looking at the set of pogs that accompanied the case. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Courtesy NASA

Hardee's Apollo 13 Pog Collector Case - Stage 2

****blog title corrected to read 'Stage 2'****

Last week Saturday we featured Stage 1 of Hardee's licensed tie-in to Ron Howard's Apollo 13 movie. he set consists of three plastic tubes that can be used separately as pog holders or when joined together form a nice caricature of the Apollo 13 rocket. The second stage shown today is really nothing more than a tube with screw-on caps on either end. Each set contains 2 pogs giving you six once you've acquired all three stages, however, the complete set of Apollo 13 pogs consists of 20 pogs, two slammers, and a game card. The set of pogs was available separately. If it weren't for the peel-&-stick appliques' that come with it, it would be quite un-extraordinary. Next week we put all three stages together. Until then - Enjoy!v Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Hardee's Apollo 13 Pog Collector Case 1995 - Stage 1

I'm kind of a fan of the Apollo 13 mission for a couple of reasons. Not only was the ill fated mission one of survival in a hostile environment under highly unusual circumstances but the mission commander, astronaut James Lovell and I are graduates of the same high school - Solomon Juneau H.S. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He graduated back in the 1950s and I graduated in 1971, however I did get a chance to see him when he visited our school in the early portion of 1971. 

The seventh manned mission of the Apollo program, Apollo 13 launched on April 11, 1970 but the mission was aborted when an oxygen tank in the Service Module exploded and crippled the Command Module. After a harrowing week and a series of makeshift repairs the crew of James Lovell, John "Jack" Swigert, and Fred Haise returned safely to earth.

In 1995 director Ron Howard released his movie "Apollo 13" starring Tom Hanks as James Lovell, Kevin Baker as Jack Swigert, and Bill Paxton as Fred Haise. Hardee's tie-in to the movie capitalized on two crazes - the Apollo 13 movie hype and pogs. Pog was a popular game/collecting craze of the early-to-mid 1990s that quite frankly I never 'got'. Don't understand the game and don't want to either! All I know is back then pogs decorated for all manner of themes were hitting the market and Hardee's cleverly decided to have a basically cylindrical object like the Apollo spaceship turned into a pog case. They did this in three 'stages' appropriately enough and each stage included two pogs and there were a total of twenty pogs available. Today we'll look at the first stage. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

The components of the set. Each stage is designed with removable caps at either end so that each one could be used independently as a case. All three share a common cylinder mold as the case. Stage one has the booster rocket while the third stage has the capsule.

The peel-&-stick appliques. I didn't notice until after they were applied that the scan was wonky!

The two pogs included in Stage 1

The assembled stages prior to placement of the appliques

That's a Matchbox NASA Tracking Vehicle shown for size comparison

The MPC 54mm astronaut is a tad big for this rig